BHU in 2023: Year’s Overview

From the Vice-Chancellor’s Desk

Dear colleagues, Alumni, Students and Well-Wishers of BHU,

As we ring in the new year, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you a review of
some of the major highlights from 2023.

The University has taken up numerous student centric initiatives to empower and facilitate
students in their quest for excellence. During the year, we have supported over 100 PhD
students for their participation in international conferences. We have sponsored seven
students to visit a globally reputed institute outside India for a semester to conduct research,
and nine students to gain External Research Experience in reputed laboratories across India. 25
students have been awarded Teach for BHU fellowships, while 100 postgraduate students have
received the Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Internships. Also, every student of the University below
the poverty line is being provided financial support of Rs.25000 per annum.

We also achieved a new milestone this year with the highest-ever enrollment of international
students with over 300 new students. Now home to over 700 international students, we have
the largest number of international students amongst the publicly funded universities in India.

Along with professional development, the physical, emotional and psychological well-being of
our students is paramount for us. The Student Well-Being and Leadership and Life Skills
initiatives have now been launched across the University, and some visible impact has started
to be visible. These two initiatives will likely have a huge impact on the lives and careers of our
students. The I Care workshops imparted training to faculty members to become primary
counselors for students.
Faculty members are drivers of
progress at BHU and we are putting in
more efforts and resources to empower
them. We have provided seed grants of
over Rs 35 crores to 398 new faculty
members to support their research.
Further, 423 faculty members have
received incentive grants for research
totalling about Rs 28 crores. About 44
proposals for trans-disciplinary
research have been sanctioned Rs. 6
crores so far. Nearly 900 faculty
members have availed Professional
Development Fund scheme to the tune
of over Rs. 9 crores, and XXX faculty
members have utlized Rs xxx crores for
international travel grants. The
university support for organizing
conferences and International academic
travels has enabled teachers to organize
around 50 meetings and conferences
within a year.
This year, five of our faculty members
were awarded NASI fellowships, as
against 14 in the last 10 years, and two
received INSA fellowships, as against 4
in the last 10 years. We are delighted to
see that the signs of our growth and
excellence are so clearly reflected in
these numbers, and are heartened to
see our faculty members receive due
recognition of their work.
Raja Jwala Prasad Post-Doctoral
Fellowship will enable 56 of our faculty
members to recruit post-doctoral
research fellows to further boost
research productivity and quality.
We are committed to get the best of
the talents to the university so as to
translate into reality the vision and
ideas with which Mahamana had
established this great seat of learning.
During the year, we strengthened our
administrative and engineering
manpower by recruiting a number of
officers and engineers.
 Besides investing in human resources, we
are also working to build and revive the
university’s infrastructure. We are
undertaking significant expansion of our
hostel capacity. Construction work has
begun for a new 1200-seated girls hostel,
while planning of construction or
expansion of several other hostels is
currently in progress. Construction is in
progress for a new academic building in
the Mahila Mahavidyalaya while design is in
progress for some more academic
buildings. The construction of 150 bedded
Critical Care Unit, and a XXX-bedded
National Centre for Aging will begin soon.

Building collaborative partnerships with

other institutions of repute opens up
new avenues of growth, for students and
faculty members both. The MoU with IIT
Madras will facilitate exchange of
scholars and teachers. The
understanding with ARSI assures a
generous endowment to support study
and research in Mathematics. A new
scheme Darbhanga Naresh Rameshwar
Singh Visiting Faculty Program will
enable faculty members from top 20
NIRF ranked institutions to spend upto
one year at BHU.

We have undertaken an ambitious task of

reforming the administrative machinery of
the university. The Administrative Reforms
Committee appointed by the University in
its report ‘Reshaping the Future: BHU’s
Path to Efficiency and Accountability’ has
made 64 recommendations that will work
as a guiding light in the years ahead. Some
impact of these efforts is already being
visible. For instance, implementation of the
Digital Life Certificate will make things
easier for our pensioners, and automation
for issuing Transfer and Migration
Certificates will save hassles for our
students.
BHU was established entirely with philanthropic funds and in order to rekindle the spirit of
philanthropy in taking BHU to its rightful place amongst the top universities of the world, we
launched our first annual fund-raising campaign called “PRATIDANA: Mahamana Annual Fund” in
2022. Generous contributions from alumni and well-wishers of the University are being
received for instituting Scholarships, conducting academic activities, as also open-ended
contributions. As a result, more than 200 scholarships have been instituted in less than two
years. To enable our well-wishers in the United States to contribute to the University, we have
now established the BHU America Foundation.

We now look forward to keeping up with the good work. While we are excited by our progress,
we have to be innovative and ambitious in setting new benchmarks, and I strongly believe that
with having each other’s back we will be able to do that.

Wishing you all a fulfilling 2024!

Sudhir K.Jain